A Qualitative Study on Variation in the Written Argumentation of Finnish Final‐Stage Undergraduate Students

ABSTRACT Higher education students need generic skills such as written argumentation to succeed in their studies and in modern working life. However, research has shown that some students struggle with these skills even at later stages of higher education. We examined Finnish final‐stage undergraduate students' argumentative texts ( n = 200). Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the quality of written argumentation and its variation between students representing different higher education sectors (universities and universities of applied sciences). There was notable variation in the quality of written argumentation, distributed differently between the two higher education sectors. Overall, the quality of written argumentation was higher among university students. The practical implications of this are considered.